One out of three people in the Ninth Congressional District have jobs in the education, health, and social service industry. When health and social assistance services for low- and moderate-income is threatened by national and state policies – all of Brooklyn is under attack.
The health campus map (above) is known to many as “Downstate,” but this location is deeper and richer in its capacity. Downstate has a student body of nearly 1,800 and a staff and faculty community of about 8,000. No other organization in the entire state would be more informed regarding health issues. It maintains the Medical History Library.
It has the infrastructure and location to become one of the world’s finest healthcare campuses. The failure of federal leadership on health and social services traps CD9’s health professionals in a community where it is easy to blame the victims for the debt incurred by the “pounds of cure” called hospitals serving patients far too late in their health history. Funds for the “ounces of prevention” that focused on the real health care needs in Brooklyn are cut far too easily. Read more on the current state of the health and hospital system here: https://bit.ly/3O26Fr5
The impetus and a national health care system will require a major change in public policy regarding health in communities of low- and moderate-income, especially in places with density and diversity like New York City. The question is simple.
How will you support “Medicare for All” legislation?
The developed world knows this is the way forward. Why doesn’t the United States understand? Comprehensive single-payer healthcare will bring stability to the Ninth Congressional District and start it on the path to community health, it will sustain good jobs and make health affordable.
For a draft of issues confronting the Ninth Congressional District a paper on the issues (here). An overview of the crisis is here.
Meanwhile in Downtown Brooklyn
On March 27, 2022, the following representatives announced $9.2 million in funding for The Brooklyn Hospital Center (TBHC) through the recently-passed government funding law.
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn, Queens), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Brooklyn Hospital serves more than 70,000 patients per year in its Emergency Department. The campus is in the Fort Greene neighborhood, near the rapidly expanding business district. It is an independent, nonprofit, safety-net hospital that is not government-owned a member of a health care system. Upwards of 90% of the hospital’s patients are people of color, and 80% are on Medicaid, Medicare, or other government insurance.
Here is the scary part.
The federal money will fund TBHC’s Emergency Department Modernization project.
The American Health System comprises two parts best described as “a pound of cure” – a hospital and an “ounce of prevention,” community clinics or routine access to medical advice and care.
The money will construct added pounds: new triage, exam, and treatment rooms. In addition, work will include redesigning the facility to produce additional space and flow for support services and the capacity to speed up registrations as needed. New facilities will have a radiology room, CT scan room, a satellite pharmacy, discharge rooms; new waiting areas; a new entrance to the Emergency Department.
Meanwhile in Bay Ridge and Brooklyn Terminal
Downstate’s BioBat to Receive $50M From City’s Expanded LifeSci NYC Investment for development in the Brooklyn Army Terminal.
A $50M investment is the same as the political donations made to Democrats from the Finance Industry in 2011. The life sciences at Downstate’s BioBAT supports another pound of cure– a lab space expansion. The effort is a part of LifeSci NYC—a commitment to drive the creation of new life science jobs in New York City. The dark part of the new pounds of cure is that it needs sickness in people. This is accepted, what seems inappropriate is the lack of balance. The gap appears to be an inability or willingness to develop a closer relationship with people and their health needs.